Category: Right Wing

Following the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, a Baptist preacher stood at his pulpit Sunday night in Northern California and delivered an impassioned sermon praising the brutal massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida.

Pastor Roger Jimenez from Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento told his congregation that Christians “shouldn’t be mourning the death of 50 sodomites.”

“People say, like: Well, aren’t you sad that 50 sodomites died?” Jimenez said, referencing the initial death toll in Orlando, which authorities later clarified included 49 victims plus the gunman. “Here’s the problem with that. It’s like the equivalent of asking me — what if you asked me: Hey, are you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?’

“Um, no, I think that’s great. I think that helps society. You know, I think Orlando, Fla., is a little safer tonight.”

He added: “The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die. The tragedy is — I’m kind of upset that he didn’t finish the job!”

These clowns obviously do not represent Christianity any more than the Orlando shooter represents Islam. Encouraging and supporting this heinous act is getting darn close to what I would call Christian terrorism.

Summer is over. And Donald Trump is — still — at the top of the 2016 Republican primary field.

That makes lots and lots of Republicans with an eye on winning the White House in 2016 (or even 2020) very, very nervous. That unease — and its origins — are explained brilliantly in this paragraph, taken from a broader piece entitled “The GOP is Killing Itself,” by former Bush administration official Pete Wehner:

The message being sent to voters is this: The Republican Party is led by people who are profoundly uncomfortable with the changing (and inevitable) demographic nature of our nation. The GOP is longing to return to the past and is fearful of the future. It is a party that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that America is irredeemably corrupt and past the point of no return. “The American dream is dead,” in the emphatic words of Mr. Trump.

When Republicans scored their big victory in the midterm elections of 2010, they looked like a party on the rise after a devastating pair of losses in 2006 and 2008. Instead, they have become a party in almost permanent disorder, torn by warring factions and near-constant tensions between their establishment leadership and a tea party-infused grass roots.

Now, in the wake of GOP House Speaker John A. Boehner’s stunning announcement Friday that he will step down from his post and resign his seat in Congress at the end of October, the question again arises: Can a party so driven by anger, a party divided over confrontation vs. compromise, actually govern in Washington?

Boehner’s decision to quit, and the suddenness with which the news broke, provided one more piece of evidence of how badly strained the Republican coalition is. His inability to corral his unruly members was legendary and, seemingly, never-ending, a series of “Perils of Pauline” moments that brought temporary truces but never fully resolved the debate about the kind of party Republicans want.Read More

Against a backdrop of election-year politics, the Manassas City Council moved this week to enact new hurdles for hospitals, outpatient surgery centers and women’s health clinics that want to expand or open new facilities within the city limits.

Residents on both sides of the abortion debate packed the Manassas City Hall chambers April 27 to watch the council update its 69-year-old zoning ordinance to include new rules for “medical care facilities,” which will likely require special use permits to locate anywhere in the city.

Introducing the measure, Mayor Harry J. “Hal” Parrish II sought to frame the issue as “reasonable land-use regulations” intended to allow the council to consider things like parking lot size, hours of operation and access for emergency vehicles before approving the permits, which are also subject to public hearings.

Parrish, who is the GOP nominee in the hotly contested race to replace retiring Sen. Charles J. Colgan, cast the tie-breaking vote on the issue, joining fellow Republicans Marc Aveni, Vice Mayor Jonathan Way and Councilman Ian Lovejoy in supporting the changes.

Republican Council Members Mark Wolfe and Sheryl Bass joined the panel’s only Democrat, Ken Elston, in opposing the measure. A second reading and vote on the zoning ordinance is scheduled for May 11.

All three of the Democrats competing in the upcoming June 9 primary to run against Parrish in November – Del. Michael Futrell, 2nd, Atif Qarni and Jeremy McPike — were present for the vote and quick to criticize Parrish’s decision.

“He’s created this façade that he’s moderate and he really isn’t,” Qarni said. “And this vote is just an example of that.”

Hal Parrish needs to understand that he just lost himself a lot of votes in the 29th Senate District. He needs to understand that he aided and abetted people who are pushing their own religious agenda down the throats of others. Parrish needs to understand that his gentlemanly ways that have made people like him will not sweet talk voters out of making him pay at the ballot box. I cannot vote for him now.

The Prince William County Board of Elections, which recently switched to Democratic control, has denied a request to allow several local Republicans – including Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart and Sheriff Glen Hill – to defend their seats in the June 9 primary.

In an emergency meeting Wednesday, the three-member board met to consider whether Stewart, Hill and supervisors Maureen Caddigan, Potomac; Pete Candland, Gainesville; and Marty Nohe, Coles, could defend their seats in the state-run primary — even though the local GOP committee missed a Feb. 24 deadline to make that request to the Virginia State Board of Elections.

The three-member board, which switched from Republican to Democratic control March 1, denied the request in a 2-to-1 party line vote.

This might not sound like a big deal if you are one of the folks who isn’t part of the party faithful, but I can assure you, it is.

The United States has been without a Surgeon General since July, 2013. The acting Surgeon General is Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak, Why is this position temporary? The Senate has refused to push through President Obama’s nominee for the position. While the Surgeon General cannot enact laws, this person can influence policy by discussion and is the national spokesperson for health related issues. Think back to comments from people serving in this position over smoking cigarettes, AIDS, and teen sex. Many folks just don’t want to have any discussion at all. This time, the NRA is leading the charge. Apparently, it fears any talk about gun violence or suicide. I can’t imagine a doctor worth his or her salt not talking about the importance of gun safety. Maybe we just won’t find a Surgeon General. Let’s examine what the problem seems to be, according to Billmoyers.com:

[T]he NRA has tried to bar pediatricians from counseling parents about the risks of keeping guns at home. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends that doctors begin to talk to parents about gun safety even before their baby is born and continue the conversation yearly, just as doctors talk to parents about the dangers of swimming pools and the importance of bicycle helmets. Florida passed a gag law in 2011; crafted by an NRA lobbyist, the bill forbids doctors from “making written inquiry or asking questions concerning the ownership of a firearm or ammunition by the patient or by a family member of the patient.” A district court ruled the following year that the law restricted physicians’ rights to free speech and the case is now in the appeals process. Murthy’s opposition to pediatrician gag laws was one of the reasons cited by the NRA and Rand Paul in their attempt to disqualify him.

This morning’s broadcast of the American Family Association’s “Today’s Issues” program was dedicated to promoting the AFA’s “A Time to Speak” documentary, which is aimed at getting pastors to mobilize their congregations to vote in the upcoming elections.

One guest on the program was Mike Huckabee, who began his interview by threatening to leave the Republican Party if the GOP does not take a stand against the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday not to hear appeals of lower court rulings striking down gay marriage bans in several states.

I am at a loss over why the Republicans are getting the blame for a Supreme Court decision NOT to take a case. How are most conservatives reacting to legal same-sex marriage? Have the conservatives in North Carolina turned over and died over it?

Local GOP stalwart Bob FitzSimmonds resigned his post as state party treasurer in light of controversial comments he made about Muslims and members of other faiths on Facebook, or has he? As of today, he is still on the job. Did he really resign or was he just kidding?

The Republican State Central Committee met over the weekend and took no action to replace him. Many party leaders have called for him to step down, including Prince William GOP chairman William Card. Mr. FitzSimmonds ‘antiquated ideas on the roles of people other than Christians in the United States hinder Republican efforts to increase the size of their tent or reach out beyond the current demographics of their party. Failure to succeed in that task could mean the demise of the Republican party, and of a viable two party system in the United States.

Pro-life isn’t just from fertilization to birth. Life is a continuum that streams from generation to generation.

I find it astonishing that some of our biggest “pro-life” movers and shakers in the community were down at McCoart Building yesterday ready to hop all over the Board of County Supervisors for allowing refugee children to live at Joe Gibb’s private facility, Youth For Tomorrow.

Many “pro-lifers” who feel quite comfortable with legislation that would force a woman to give birth even in extreme cases of rape, incest and fetal anomaly, have no compunction about telling the “illegals” to go back where they came from, even if they are 5, 8 or 11 years old. These same people want to deny these children refuge, even on a temporary basis.

These people simply aren’t pro-life–not by my standards. Perhaps my standards are just a little too high for some of the movers and shakers. From here on out, if I heard you calling out children who are here, alive and kicking, and telling them to go home, I will be calling bullshit on you, regardless of who you are.

Sort of makes you wonder who the real pro-lifers are. Perhaps the very name pro-life has been high-jacked by many who are very short sighted.

The candidates have said it all. This line up is simply amazing. Not in my Virginia…please!!

The core problem is that there can be no re-branding of the Republican Party. How do you re-brand core beliefs? If you feel homosexuality is a sin, you can’t re-brand that. If you have strong anti immigration feelings, how is that re-branded? There is no magic wand that waves away these feelings. At best, Republicans can tone down the rhetoric and stop trying to legislate the social issues. Other than that, I simply don’t know what can be done.You are still talking about the same core party members and people who vote for their beliefs. One’s common core of values simply doesn’t re brand.

Many of the moderate Republicans are chased out of office these days to the screams and shouts of “RINO!” There doesn’t seem to be room for these people under the big tent any more. some of my favorite people are moderate Republicans, which should come as no shock. I eschew zealots of any flavor.

Perhaps what we will soon hear is the swan song for the Grand Old Party. I think that is sad. Perhaps we have already heard it, as the Old Guard dies off or goes out of office, often in disgust. My feeling is the Grand Old Party died off a few years ago and the swan song was sung. What’s left? The Republicans who I just don’t feel can claim the Grand Old Party logo.

Glenn Beck vs. Chris Christie

Christie, after all, has done nothing conservative since his surprising win over Democrat Jon Corzine four years ago – nothing other than declaring war against the most extreme government union bosses, fighting for education reform across the Garden State, spending less in this year’s FY13 budget than Corzine spent in actual dollars in FY08, reforming and keeping afloat the state’s dying public pension and health benefit programs by eliminating COLAs, increasing employee contributions, raising the retirement age while saving the moribund system $120 billion over 30 years.

Had GOP voters also followed Buckley’s advice to vote for the most electable conservative instead of the most right-wing choice, Harry Reid would be in retirement and a Republican would be the Senate majority leader.

For the GOP to win again, it must dare to embrace Buckley’s ruthless, pragmatic approach to primary elections and learn again to vote for candidates who can win sweeping majorities and just say no to ideological indulgences that only advance the Democrats’ cause.

Rush Limbaugh, the longstanding undisputed king of conservative talk radio who’s been dogged by controversy recently, is about to face some more heat. Not from the left, but this time from the right.

On Monday, former Arkansas governor and one-time Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will launch a three-hour radio program on almost 200 stations across the country, going voice-to-voice with Limbaugh in the noon-to-3 p.m. time slot, Monday through Friday.

Cumulus Media, which owns and operates the new program, is already pitching Huckabee to listeners and advertisers as the “safe alternative” to a man who has recently found himself under weeks of intense fire – not for the first time – and who some believe could be vulnerable to a challenge from someone offering a kinder, gentler conservative voice.

“Our tagline is, ‘More conversation, less confrontation’,” Huckabee told POLITICO. “I’m going to treat every guest with respect and civility. Nobody is going to come on and get into a shouting match with me. That’s just not my style.”

Making a direct comparison with Limbaugh, John Dickey, the co-COO of Cumulus Media, adds, “This is going to be safer from a commercial standpoint, and more respectful from a listener’s perspective. I think that environment has been sorely lacking in talk radio.”

Mike Huckabee is a nice man. I despise his politics but I think he is a decent human being. I have never heard him be intentionally rude to a guest on his show.

So what’s the problem? Is the Rush audience going to go for Mike Huckabee? I seriously doubt it. Limbaugh appeals to a certain type of person who wants controversy and gets off on allowing a bully to be their mouth piece. Seriously, what person says they are proud to be a ditto head?

I hope Mike Huckabee finds his audience. It won’t be me but he does speak for many people. I would like to think that there are more Mike fans than Rush fans out there in conservative-land. Do you think he will be successful?